Soon—
The crisp and mechanical voice of the AI echoed in his ears.
"Mom can't tell the difference either."
At that moment.
The final 30-second countdown was about to end. The Bald Man, whose nerves were on the verge of collapse, seemed to resign himself to fate. He slowly rose from his kneeling position, his eyes filled with despair as he suddenly let out a bitter laugh at the sight of the dozens of refrigerators before him.
The next moment!
The robot suddenly seemed to lose control and fell to the ground. The countdown had ended.
The man's consciousness was also pulled away at that instant.
"Huh?"
Chen Mang, who had been sitting in the control room witnessing everything, hadn't even had time to reflect on what he'd seen. His eyes suddenly lit up as he leaned out to look at the sky—no drones were approaching.
In other words,
this robot was now his spoils of war?
Without hesitation, he grabbed the walkie-talkie.
"Lao Zhu, tell Li Shiji to dismantle this labyrinth. Have him neatly store all the refrigerators in one fridge and bring that robot out."
"Understood."
Lao Zhu's voice quickly came through the walkie-talkie.
As the saying goes, the one who tied the bell must untie it. Only Li Shiji could dismantle this labyrinth. Anyone else who entered wouldn't even manage to dismantle it—they'd be lucky not to get dismantled themselves.
These refrigerators had cost him a whopping 480,000 units of iron ore!
Now, it seemed like it was all worth it.
Even if he sent these refrigerators to the Geothermal Furnace for recycling, he could still recover about half of the cost. However, he planned to recycle the ordinary refrigerators and keep the Level 10 ones—they would be useful later. It would be a shame to recycle them; they could be used as storage boxes or for the single-person rooms of residents.
One hundred square meters—that's not small.
A perfectly square, zero shared-space area. This was true zero shared-space, unlike in the previous world where many real estate developers included balconies and terraces in their so-called zero shared-space calculations. Placing a small refrigerator, a single bed, and some daily necessities collected during the apocalypse would make it a cozy little home.
"."
The Bald Man's consciousness returned to the Azure Dragon. His eyes were vacant as he leaned back in his chair, staring blankly into the distance, as if he had lost his soul.
After who knows how long,
the Bald Man finally snapped out of it. He looked at the lines on the screen—lines he had been unwilling to face.
"Challenge failed."
"But you are the first Train Conductor to reach the Fortuitous Encounter of the Underwater Labyrinth. In recognition of your courage and spirit of exploration, you will still receive a consolation prize."
The Bald Man stared at these two lines, and at the badge-like object that had somehow appeared on the control panel. His eyes gradually regained some light. He shook his head, reached out, and picked up the badge, letting out a bitter laugh as if resigning himself to fate.
"Ah, well."
"At least there's a consolation prize."
However, the next moment—
As he held the badge in his hand, a panel appeared before him.
"Special Item": Badge of the Brave.
"Item Effect": When wearing this badge, it will soothe your fear in desperate situations and fill you with courage.
"."
The Bald Man remained silent for a long time before casually tossing the badge onto the table. What the hell was the point of this damn thing?!
When he's in a desperate situation, does he need courage?
He needs a damn solution!!!
In his dazed state, he turned his head to look at the refrigerator in the corner of the train compartment. Among the 17 white components that a Level 1 train could craft, the highest upgrade was Level 2. He had crafted several and placed them in the train.
This was normal.
Although he hadn't upgraded the refrigerator to the stage where it possessed the Supermodel Effect, he could roughly guess what it would be.
The Level 5 or Level 10 Supermodel Effect of the refrigerator would grant it a space of one hundred square meters. This wasn't hard to guess—it made sense. Upgrading from a refrigerator to a cold storage unit was entirely understandable.
But—
That's a refrigerator! A single component!
It's not like upgrading one refrigerator to Level 10 would automatically upgrade all the others to Level 10. He had seen at least seventy or eighty refrigerators with such a large space. How much Murphy Stone would that consume?!
How could anyone obtain so much Murphy Stone?!
Does that make sense?
"Murphy Stone," a special item that could break through level caps. Of course, even if you used Murphy Stone, you still had to pay the resources required for the upgrade. He didn't know about higher-level regions, but he knew that in the green zones, this item was extremely rare!
Otherwise, on the Shahe Plain's "Supermodel Effect Quantity Leaderboard," the competition wouldn't be so fierce. From first to hundredth place, the gaps were minimal. Only yellow-grade vehicle components could be upgraded to Level 5 to unlock the Supermodel Effect.
The number of yellow-grade components people had was pretty much the same.
It wouldn't happen...
"Wait!"
The Bald Man suddenly straightened up, a thought flashing through his mind. His eyes gleamed with disbelief. He had once seen a Level 2 train in the Kunlun Mountains region. That train had left him in awe—it could move freely on nearly vertical cliffs!
At the time, he wondered if that person had used a large amount of Murphy Stone to upgrade the "Spider Leg" component to a high level.
Maybe it was some big shot's relative.
But thinking about it, that didn't seem realistic. After all, that was "Murphy Stone"! What big shot would be willing to use such resources to assist their relatives? Even if it were their own child, wouldn't it be safer to just have them stay in their own train?
And now...
These two trains had one thing in common—they had both consumed a large amount of Murphy Stone. Could they be the same train?
The man frowned, racking his brain for a while before shaking his head. He was certain they weren't the same train.
The train he had seen in the Kunlun Mountains region had two open-air carriages at the back and didn't have so many machine guns.
Yes!
Although he hadn't had time to observe the interior of the train due to the urgency, the ten heavy machine guns mounted on the ceiling of the carriage housing the labyrinth had left a deep impression on him.
His own train was Level 5, with over 600 slaves on board.
But he had never thought of installing ten heavy machine guns inside the carriage. Just how afraid were they of a slave rebellion? Even if they were truly afraid, one heavy machine gun would be enough. Did they really need ten? Were they worried they wouldn't kill fast enough to feel secure?
Based on the labyrinth and his observations of this train,
he quickly formed a first impression of the train's conductor.
Extremely insecure, tyrannical towards the slaves, constantly provoking rebellions that required severe suppression, possessing a large amount of Murphy Stone, enjoying mocking others, and being extremely cunning!
The Bald Man shook his head, trying to calm himself down. He picked up the "badge" he had tossed onto the control panel earlier and pinned it to his chest.
What a pity...
He didn't know which region the other party was from.
If only they were from one of the white zones next to the Shahe Plain. His mission failure meant that the other party's S-Rank difficulty "Mechanical Class Change" mission had succeeded. When they entered the green zone of Shahe Plain, they would become the first—and the only one he had seen—with S-Rank potential as a Mechanical Train!
At that time, he would know the name of this train!
"Hehe..."
The Bald Man couldn't help but grin at the thought. If they really came to the Shahe Plain, then he wouldn't be blamed for bullying the weak. No matter how much S-Rank potential they had, they were still a Level 3 train, at most just upgraded to Level 4.
He was a Level 5 train. Bullying a Level 4 train would be... would be a sure victory.
The man's smile instantly vanished. He stood there expressionless, silent. A train that had upgraded so many refrigerators—wouldn't they have upgraded other components as well?
Moreover, after completing the S-Rank difficulty "Mechanical Class Change" mission, they would also receive a red-grade, large-scale destructive weapon.
It really would be a sure victory.
"Mom, is there really no such thing as a 'Murphy Stone Mine'?"
Soon—
The electronic mechanical voice of the AI echoed in the carriage.
"'Murphy Stone' is a special item. It can only be obtained through certain Fortuitous Encounters or by defeating rare bosses, and so on. It does not form a mine. This is the information currently in my database. However, when you encounter other keywords or venture into higher-level regions in the future, my database may update with different information."
"If there's no Murphy Stone Mine, how could they have upgraded so many refrigerators? Could they have cheated?"
"This is the real apocalypse, not a multiplayer online game manufactured by a company. There's no such thing as 'cheating.'"
"That's true."
Meanwhile,
inside the train.
Li Shiji, who was tidying up the labyrinth, looked at the robot kneeling on the ground and let out a regretful sigh. "Why didn't you take one more step?"
He walked to the front, opened the nearest refrigerator, and a piece of A4 paper slowly floated out.
On it were written three sentences.
"The real end point is actually on the first floor. When you entered the labyrinth, there was a refrigerator placed against the wall on the far left of the entrance."
"That refrigerator is the end point, silly child."
"The end point is actually at the starting point."
If the robot had taken one more step and opened the refrigerator to see these words on the A4 paper, it would have been quite amusing.
As for the authenticity of these three sentences,
of course, they were false.
There were only eleven refrigerators on the first floor. There was no end point. However, if the robot had human-like thinking, it would likely have been on the verge of a mental breakdown by this point.
Its perception, judgment, and even memory would have significantly declined.
Upon seeing these three sentences,
it might even have altered its own memory, truly believing that it had indeed seen a refrigerator placed against the wall on the far left of the entrance when it first entered the labyrinth.
Even though the robot had already scanned the entire space upon entering.
At this point, with human-like thinking, it would most likely start doubting itself.
That's when things would have gotten really interesting.
Especially with only a few minutes left on the countdown, when the robot hurried back to the first floor and found nothing in the far left corner—that's when the emotional breakdown would have peaked.
This robot's strength was a bit lacking.
Many of the traps he had set up hadn't even been triggered.
What a pity.
Li Shiji shook his head regretfully, then placed the robot inside a refrigerator and began clearing the labyrinth. Due to rule restrictions and the limited number of tools he could use, many of the plans he had in mind couldn't be realized.
Otherwise,
he would have electrified all the refrigerators, lowered the temperature to the minimum, and poured water into them before turning on the power, letting it freeze into ice. Even a robot would have slipped and fallen a few times.
If he had access to projections, it would have been even more fun.
Inside the Stellar Train.
Chen Mang sat in his chair, looking at the semi-transparent virtual panel that had popped up before him.
"Congratulations! The Stellar Train has successfully completed the S-Rank difficulty Class Change mission and has officially transformed into a Mechanical Train!"
"Moreover, you are the first Train Conductor on the Shahe Plain to complete an S-Rank difficulty Class Change mission."
"Your 'Unknown Component' will be of red grade, and you will now randomly draw from the pool of large-scale heavy firepower red-grade components..."
"Drawn: Red-grade vehicle component 'Ground Burst Missile.'"
The next moment!
At the very top of the train's screen, a line of text framed in gold slowly scrolled by, accompanied by fireworks. At the same time, a voice echoed in the minds of all Train Conductors on the Shahe Plain.
"Shahe Plain Regional Broadcast": Congratulations to the Stellar Train for successfully completing the S-Rank difficulty 'Mechanical Train' Class Change mission, becoming the first Mechanical Train on the Shahe Plain to complete an S-Rank difficulty Class Change mission.
"Huh?"
Chen Mang's mouth slowly fell open as he stared at the three-dimensional image of the red-grade vehicle component "Ground Burst Missile" on the train's screen. It took him a while to regain his composure. Without hesitation, he spent 1 unit of iron ore to craft it, and then crafted another open-air carriage.
This was one of the 12 components that a Level 3 train could craft—the "Unknown Component."
The grade and name of this component would only be revealed after successfully completing the Class Change mission. Regardless of its grade, the crafting cost was only 1 unit of iron ore.
Immediately after,
Chen Mang jumped out of the train compartment and strode to the rear of the train, looking at the newly added open-air carriage. A missile, a full 8 meters long and over 2 meters wide, was tilted and placed in this open-air carriage, pointing straight at the sky!
The entire body was black, with a white ring around the missile head and a red dot at the very center.
It added a touch of cruel ferocity to the already imposing Stellar Train.
If this Ground Burst Missile were to strike, everything within its blast radius would be obliterated!
He stood there, leaning on his cane, looking up at the Ground Burst Missile that occupied an entire open-air carriage, quietly admiring it.
The rain had stopped.
A ray of sunlight broke through the clouds, falling directly on the missile.
As if bestowing it with a noble mission.
Making it appear particularly sacred and glaring in the dim ruins of the apocalypse, captivating anyone who laid eyes on it.
"This is good."
Chen Mang's lips curled into a faint smile. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. He took a long drag, exhaling a puff of smoke.
All the frustration and unease he had felt since arriving in this apocalyptic world seemed to dissipate with that puff of smoke.
(End of Chapter)